review

By Bazaar Staff 11/07/2013

KUWAIT DIVE TEAM

Fun and function

Since 1991, the Kuwait diving team has been participating in the protection and rehabilitation of Kuwait’s aquatic world through a host of activities that runs the spectrum of positive interaction with the environment. Originally established by members of the Marine Environment Sciences Society, and Kuwait Science Club, they are pleased to be continuing on their mission into their 22nd year.

The primary mission of the dive team is to save Kuwait’s aquatic life and environment. They do this in a variety of facets, including the documentation and protection of coral reefs, beach clean ups, establishing colonies of fish, as well as underwater ship retrieval. With their hand in a bit of all things sea-related just off our coast, they represent the best of what these types of organizations should be: passionate people who care enough about our own local waters to be actively participating in their betterment for ours and future generations.

For the Kuwait Dive Team, making sure they stay on top of their training is considered one of the team’s essential ways to improve the member’s service to the community at large. This is so that they can perform their work in a professional way, as well as to learn new things that the members might encounter in areas such as search and recovery, underwater navigation (which gives the availability to work in poor visibility conditions), and others. Additionally, there are some members that continue their diving education beyond just the minimums required and go on to receive high certifications from scuba diving training organization PADI. By virtue of doing this, they become professional instructors themselves, and can issue scuba diving certificates, which are recognized worldwide. It is some of these instructors who have gone on to establish the training center that they use today.

When it comes to diving courses specifically, they have a lot of options for you. First, their Juniors Divers program for young divers is best thought of as an exciting introduction to the diving world overall. Or, should you already feel you have mastered the basics, they also have an advanced open water diving course. This course helps you get more out of diving by introducing you to new types of scuba diving adventures like deep dive, navigation dive, night dive, drift dive, search and recovery and nitrox. The first responding courses, by contrast, teach individuals how to provide care for another diver who might be in need. This enables participants to remember proper emergency care and procedures and encourages them to apply these skills when needed. Rescue divers, of course, are considered important and vital to expanding the knowledge base and experience of the diver to what’s beyond just for fun, or for entertainment purposes. Rescue divers learn to look far beyond just their own personal concerns when diving, and begin to take into account the safety of other divers. This is the reason why all of their rescue divers are required to take leadership trainings as well: to assure they will be empowered enough to use these skills when the time arrives.

There are many different environments in the field of diving that requires special training to increase knowledge and skills of some of the lesser-known areas of diving. Some of these include: Nitrox, Dry suit, underwater photography, in addition to wreck, deep, or drift diving. All of these represent a different specialty-field that necessitates specialized training to correspond.

It is worth mentioning that all of the members of the dive team come from very different and unique walks of life and occupations. In order to participate in all of the help and community service that they do, they do have to sacrifice from other areas of their life. It is worth considering them the next time you go sit out on the beach and relax in a nice clean environment with a beautiful view.

The Kuwait Dive Team can be found on Facebook and YouTube @: kuwaitdivingteam or on Instagram and Twitter @: kwtdivingteam. They can also be reached by phone at: Dive Center: 2224 7575 Office: 2562 7515